Eastern District School

Chapter 86 - Love

"It's you!"

Her voice was barely a whisper, although everything inside her screamed out. She almost didn't recognise her voice. 

She could have said a thousand things in her reuniting with her father, yet those were the words her mind sought and rather chucked out. It wasn't quite a question either she realised after, something of course her mother picked up on too. 

"You remember?" Shirley asked her daughter. 

Rose still stood separate from her parents, although Shirley had not let her husband go from her grasp. 

Rose shook her head, her mind still unable to find any other words. 

Shirley wore a look of confusion and said just as much to them then. "I don't understand...Pete, did you speak with her before?"

Peter Johnstone smiled a sad smile before he spoke. Rose noticed the lines on his face were probably more from worry than age. Yet she stared blankly at him still. "We met briefly after a friend died. At the hospital. It was the first time I had spoken to you since you were a baby Rose." he said addressing his daughter directly, his wife still waiting patiently for her husband's next move. "I know you've read all the letters and have the understanding that you need. You know I couldn't come to you before. It wasn't safe!" he added. 

Rose bobbed her head in understanding. She may have grasped the basic reasons for her father's actions, but she wasn't sure she completely understood them.

"So she's safe?" Shirley asked him then, and he turned to his wife, he reached for both of her hands and drew them up between them close to their faces. 

"Yes my darling. She is safe." he said, his voice was soft and smooth, oozing with love she noted and realised her mind was starting to return to normal service. 

"Is there anything I have to do?" came her voice again, surprising her once again. 

Her father smiled, and gently shook his head, his eyes momentarily loosing that loving gaze. "No dear Rose, nothing. Just keep being who you have to be, who you want to be. Love who you want to love."

"And you?" she asked, her voice returning to a calmer tone, she realised. 

She was met with another smile, this one beaming with pride mostly. "You're far smarter than I ever imagined. Always able to see through things. And to ask the right questions." he added in a lighter tone. "There are always repercussions to whatever action we take Rose. Each road we take in life leads to somewhere completely different than the one lined up next to it. Sometimes the things that we have to fight for, you have to keep fighting for. Never give up on fighting for what is right!"

Although Rose could feel the confused look drawing down on her face, the look her mother wore was somewhat different. She looked sad, and Rose wondered if what her father had meant was that he still had fighting to do?

Her father!

Realisation took hold of her as she mentally voiced the words in her head. Her father was here! He was stood before her, almost like a dream, that is, if she had had any idea of what he looked like. Living over 20 years without so much as a photograph of him was rather weary on the soul, not to mention the mind.  Yet here he was. Here they were. Stood on the top of Eastern District, the place where she was born. 

Something shouted in the back of her mind, something about coming full circle, but she didn't listen and tried to drown out the rush of terror that came with the thought. The moment passed just leaving her with a quickened pulse.